Sports Books of the Year

The shortlist for the sports book of the year contained half a dozen excellent books, but naturally, there could only be one winner. In previous years, it’s the winning author who ended up receiving the accolades, the profile and the money, but we think that if a book was good enough to make it to the shortlist, there is still a good chance you will want to read it.

We have reviewed some of the titles in full but provide a synopsis of each book below.

My Manchester United Years by Sir Bobby Charlton Release date: 06th September, 2007 Publisher: Headline Publishing List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £10.00 You Save: £10 (50%) Buy Now

Like almost every boy his age, Charlton grew up besotted by football. Playing the game for as long as parents would allow was the norm in the Northumberland mining village of Ashington, as it was everywhere else across Britain up until the mid-seventies. Games involving almost every boy in the street were not unusual, but even among these unwieldy matches, it soon became apparent that young Bobby, together with his older brother Jack, were endowed with a rare talent... (read review)

	Sport by Tim Harris Release date: 14th December, 2007 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £12.00 You Save: £8 (40%) Buy Now
That any area of modern life could justify having such a weighty tome pitched to a wide consumer audience is doubtful. In recent times, perhaps only Margaret Thatcher's The Downing Street Years could have afforded to run beyond 350 pages and still be considered to have mass appeal. (read review)

Hands of Stone by Christian Giudice Release date: 04th February, 2008 Publisher: Milo Books List Price: £7.99 Our Price: £5.59 You Save: £2.4 (30%) Buy Now

Duran's tales reads like a Hollywood movie. Brought up by his mother in extreme poverty, he learned his trade on the streets. The story goes that as his mother went into labour, his maternal grandmother went looking for his father, then womanising in a nearby bar, and laid him out with a single punch before returning home to assist with the labour. Aggression was clearly in Duran's genes. (read review)

	Carra: My Autobiography by Jamie Carragher Release date: 07th September, 2008 Publisher: Bantam Press List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £10.99 You Save: £8 (42%) Buy Now
Carragher's performance a certain balmy night in Istanbul has become part of Anfield folklore and while Liverpool's improbable success has been deemed 'sport's greatest-ever comeback', Carra is not a belated attempt to re-live an outrageously famous victory in print... (read review)

	The Bromley Boys by Dave Roberts Release date: 05th September, 2008 Publisher: Portico Publishing List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £7.69 You Save: £5.3 (40%) Buy Now
Roberts is a genuine football fan and this marvellous memoir is a must read, not just for those who ignore the top flight siren calls to follow their local club, but also for fans who might just be getting a little tired of the Premier League's achingly dull repepetitveness... (read review)

	Winning is not Enough by Sir Jackie Stewart Release date: 07th May, 2009 Publisher: Headline Books List Price: £7.99 Our Price: £4.99 You Save: £3 (37%) Buy Now
For this week's competition and an opportunity to win 'Winning Is Not Enough', simply answer the following question: What was Sir jackie Steart's last Formula One win? Email us your answer no later than 26th June 2009 (read review)

	Bad Blood by Jeremy Whittle Release date: 26th June, 2009 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £8..59 You Save: £4.99 (38%) Buy Now
Bad Blood is a wonderfully well-paced book (easily read in a day), at times as steady as the peleton, on other occasions fast enough to resemble a sprint finish; it rarely plods, which makes it absolutely gripping.... (read review)

	True Colours by Adam Gilchrist Release date: 22nd November, 2008 Publisher: Pan Macmillan List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £10.99 You Save: £8 (42%) Buy Now
To win a copy of True Colours, simply answer the following question: Before the start of the current (2009)series, how many times had Australia won the Ashes? Email your answers to us as Sportsbookofthemonth.com (read review)

	Players: 250 men, women & animals who created modern sport By Tim Harris Release date: 06th October, 2009 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £13.00 You Save: £7 (35%) Buy Now
To win a copy of 'Players', simply answer the following question: Who was the IOC President prior to the election of Jacques Rogge? Email your answers to competition@sportsbookofthemonth.com (read review)

	Jacob's Beach by Kevin Mitchell Release date: 18th October, 2009 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £13.29 You Save: £5.7 (30%) Buy Now
Yet did boxing ever enjoy a golden age? It's a question thoughtfully considered by Kevin Mitchell in this wonderful book which, had it been published a few months earlier, would be a serious contender for sports book of the year. (read review)

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami Release date: 20th December, 2009 Publisher: Vintage List Price: £7.99 Our Price: £4.69 You Save: £3.3 (41%) Buy Now

Murakami was already an established novelist when he realised that his rather sedentary existence was making him fat. His response was to take up running and he has since tackled more than twenty-five marathons, too many half-marathons to mention and one particularly gruelling 100 kilometre ultra-marathon, the peculiar spiritual benefits of which are described here in satisfying detail. (read review)

	Beware of the Dog by Brian Moore Release date: 04th January, 2010 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £17.99 Our Price: £8.98 You Save: £9.01 (50%) Buy Now
To win a copy of Beware of the Dog,simply answer the following question: how many caps did Brian Moore win for the British Lions? Email your answer to comp@sportsbookofthemonth.com (read review)

Laurent Fignon: We Were Young and Carefree Release date: 10th July, 2010 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £8.09 You Save: £4.9 (37%) Buy Now

Laurent Fignon is one of the giants of modern cycling. Twice-winner of the Tour de France in the early eighties, he became the star for a new generation. In 1989 he took part in one of the most fiercely-contested Tours of all time. Over the course of 3,285 kilometres he lost out to his American arch-rival, Greg LeMond, by an agonising eight seconds on the final Parisian time trial. He died from cancer, aged 50, on 31 August. (read review)

Arthur Milton: Last of the Double Internationals by Mike Vockins Release date: 01st June, 2011 Publisher: Sprts Books List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £12.29 You Save: £6.7 (35%) Buy Now

Since 1887, only twelve men have been designated as double internationals, capped by England at both cricket and football. CB Fry and Denis Compton are perhaps the two most famous (though the latter never played in a full soccer international: his 12 appearances took place during World War II), but Arthur Milton, the last 'official' double international deserves his place amongst this most exclusive of sporting clubs. (read review)

	The Smell of Football by Mick Rathbone Release date: 25th July, 2011 Publisher: Vision Sports Publishing List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £8.48 You Save: £4.51 (34%) Buy Now
If the build up to the new season has you anxious, worried or concerned, remember: it's only a game. Fortunately, The Smell of Football reminds us that it's one full of laughs and shouldn't be taken too seriously. (read review)

	Why We Run By Robin Harvie Release date: 04th August, 2011 Publisher: John Murray List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £7.49 You Save: £5.5 (42%) Buy Now
"All who have put on a pair of trainers will know the sense of freedom that comes with fresh air on the face miles from home," writes Robin Harvie in the prologue to his excellent book, 'Why We Run'. (read review)

	A Life Too Short by Ronald Reng Release date: 28th September, 2011 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £8.99 You Save: £8 (47%) Buy Now
German international goalkeeper Robert Enke was fortunate enough to make it to the very top, but beset by depression, in November 2009 he committed suicide at the age of just 32... (read review)

	Ken Jones: Boots & Spikes by Steve Lewis Release date: 18th September, 2011 Publisher: Sportsbooks Ltd List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £13.48 You Save: £5.51 (29%) Buy Now
Every so often, one stumbles upon an unexpected treat - a beautiful view across a deserted bay, a night sky replete with a billion stars, or a labour of love which tells of a hugely successful and very modest sportsman: Ken Jones: Boots & Spikes is one such delight. (read review)

	Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography By Chris Waters Release date: 20th November, 2011 Publisher: Aurum Press List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £11.00 You Save: £9 (45%) Buy Now
We have three copies copy of Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography to give away. To win this week's sports book, answer following question: In what year did Fred Trueman retire from first class cricket? Answers must be received no later than midnight on 16 December 2011. (read review)

The Ghost Runner by Bill Jones Release date: 18th July, 2011 Publisher: Mainstream List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £8.83 You Save: £4.16 (32%) Buy Now

The Ghost Runner by Bill Jones is an extraordinary tale of John Tarrant, a man banned from athletics for life in the 1950s for breaching a strict amateur code. Tarrant admitted receiving £17 as a teenage boxer which resulted in him losing his amateur sporting status, although this did not prevent him from running marathons unofficially. He would often start races in an overcoat and discard it to reveal a strip with no number. Tarrant, raised in a tough children's home, went on to set a series of world records over 40 miles and 100 miles, but died of cancer aged just 42 without receiving the recognition he deserved. A fantastic read that will have you scurrying back from your Christmas Day walk for more. (read review)

Among the Fans From Ashes to the Arrows By Patrick Collins Release date: 20th October, 2011 Publisher: Wisden Sports List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £13.19 You Save: £5.8 (30%) Buy Now

Have supporters become more cynical? Do they observe in the knowledge that something underhand is likely to be going on in a rugby scrum, a Test match, a blue riband cycling tour? Patrick Collins' enormously enjoyable book, in which he spends a year away from the press box, his normal place of work, and travels from South Africa to Adelaide and most places in between "watching the watchers" examines both fans' cynicism and their unrelenting support even when the latter appears completely illogical. A (read review)

	Inside the Divide By Richard Wilson Release date: 01st January, 2012 Publisher: Canongate List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £11.92 You Save: £7.07 (37%) Buy Now
A widespread sense of indifference towards Scottish football has developed across England over the past 30-odd years. Where once players for our top-flight clubs were regularly sourced north of the border (Scottish players are credited with introducing 'pass and move' to the English game), nowadays they're much more likely to hail from continental Europe or beyond. (read review)

Underdog! By Tim Quelch Release date: 03rd February, 2012 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £14.99 Our Price: £9.89 You Save: £5.1 (34%) Buy Now

There are few places on earth where the underdog is more admired than in Britain and nowhere is our appreciation more evident than in a sporting context. We become enthused by the underdog's passion and determination when the odds are stacked against them, a sense which is perhaps closely associated with the fact that we hail from a small country which for centuries has consistently punched above its weight. (read review)

	Britain's lost cricket grounds By Chris Arnot Release date: 01st January, 2012 Publisher: Aurum Publishing List Price: £25.00 Our Price: £13.99 You Save: £11.01 (44%) Buy Now
There was a time when the local cricket ground was an integral part of town and city alike. Reserved exclusively for summer usage, they were a source of great civic pride and always beautifully prepared for the visit of first class county teams. Alas, this 'old-fashioned' approach to sport has been supplanted, without much thought given to what replaces it. (read review)

	Got, Not Got By Derek Hammond & Gary Silke Release date: 01st February, 2012 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £12.99 You Save: £7 (35%) Buy Now
This is an absolute gem of a book from which football fans of every age may extract something to amuse, recall, regret or simply enjoy. (read review)

	Underdogs By Keith Dewhurst Release date: 22nd March, 2012 Publisher: Yellow Jersey List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.04 You Save: £5.95 (35%) Buy Now
In Underdogs, Keith Dewhurst, a successful playwright and novelist, weaves an engaging, well-observed tale, mixing social history with what could be called the roots of modern football. (read review)

Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike By William Fotheringham Release date: 23rd March, 2012 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £10.19 You Save: £6.8 (40%) Buy Now

To describe Eddy Merckx as a hard-as-nails competitor is a little like saying Sir Alex Ferguson is a decent football manager. Between 1969 and 1974, he won the Tour de France five times and the equally difficult Giro d'Italia four times. He was crowned world cycling champion on three occasions and racked up more than 400 victories in other races, bludgeoning rivals into submission with his relentless, trademark attacks. Little wonder he was known as 'The Cannibal'. (read review)

	Running For Their Lives By Mark Whitaker Release date: 06th April, 2012 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £17.99 Our Price: £11.15 You Save: £6.84 (38%) Buy Now
When Brighton-born teacher Arthur Newton left for South Africa in 1911 to become a farmer, he had absolutely no athletic background nor experience beyond running occasional races at school. Yet following a dramatic turn of events, the 28 year-old was to become "the world's greatest distance runner". (read review)

	The Eagle of Toledo By Alasdair Fotheringham Release date: 20th June, 2012 Publisher: Aurum Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.89 You Save: £5.1 (30%) Buy Now
Steve Sanders is captivated by a cycling biography he describes as a 'must read'. Read Steve's entertaining review by clicking on the link. (read review)

	Be Careful What You Wish For By Simon Jordan Release date: 17th June, 2012 Publisher: Yellow Jersey List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £11.77 You Save: £7.22 (38%) Buy Now
Another of our top five football books of the year for you to win as one amazing prize. But you've got to be in it to win it, so see how you can nab a fantastic Christmas prize by clicking on our competition section below. (read review)

	The Perfect Distance Ovett & Coe: the record-breaking rivalry By Pat Butcher Release date: 08th August, 2012 Publisher: Phoenix Publishing List Price: £8.99 Our Price: £6.29 You Save: £2.7 (30%) Buy Now
Prompted by the delivery of a speech by Lord Sebastian Coe to close the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games, Steve Sanders reminds us of Olympic times past. Steve reviews a re-issued cracker tracing the history of two of Britain's greatest middle distance runners... (read review)

	Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong By David Walsh Release date: 13th December, 2012 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £9.31 You Save: £9.68 (50%) Buy Now
This is one of the most powerful sports books ever written, yet despite its length (over 420 pages), Walsh, an accomplished journalist, retains the reader's attention throughout. A 'must-read' for anyone with an interest in modern sport. (read review)

The Secret Race By Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle Release date: 07th September, 2012 Publisher: Bantam Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.39 You Save: £5.6 (32%) Buy Now

This is an important book. Coyle and Hamilton finally lay bare an awful truth and back it up with hard forensic evidence. When read alongside the report from the United States Anti-Doping Agency which explains why it stripped Lance Armstrong of seven Tour titles, perhaps cycling's omerta, which prevented writers and journalists from revealing the extent of drug-taking across the professional ranks can finally be shot to pieces. (read review)

	The Dirtiest Race in History By Richard Moore Release date: 20th September, 2012 Publisher: Wisden List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £13.29 You Save: £5.7 (30%) Buy Now
Does it occasionally suit sports governing bodies to keep any mention or suspicion of drug-taking quiet? Are administrators simply more interested in protecting a sport's 'image' rather than publicly carpeting the cheats? Discuss. (read review)

	Running My Life By Seb Coe Release date: 09th November, 2012 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £9.00 You Save: £11 (55%) Buy Now
It's astonishing to think that Lord Sebastian Coe has achieved what he has and he's still only in his mid-fifties. (read review)

	Does Your Rabbi Know You're Here? By Anthony Clavane Release date: 16th October, 2012 Publisher: Quercus List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £10.42 You Save: £9.58 (47%) Buy Now
All too often, authors fail to provide their readers with even a modicum of history, a back story upon which the rest of their work can be built. Thankfully, this frustrating trait is conspicuous by it's absence from Anthony Clavane's latest book, a fascinating, engaging tale of English football's 'forgotten tribe'. (read review)

Duncan Edwards: The Greatest By James Leighton Release date: 02nd February, 2013 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £8.99 Our Price: £6.29 You Save: £2.7 (30%) Buy Now

James Leighton’s biography of Duncan Edwards should not be dismissed as being aimed solely at Manchester United supporters this Christmas. Irrespective of what club you support, this is an outstanding story of a truly brilliant player. Thankfully, Leighton also dispels the notion that top-flight football was only invented in 1992. “While I felt that players from the 1950s would struggle in the modern game,” he writes, “I realised it would probably be the other way around. How would today’s pampered, richly rewarded superstars react to two years National Service in the middle of their careers? Would they be happy to play for a few pounds a week? Would they look as quick and skilful after playing more than 90 matches a season, on poor pitches, with a heavy ball and ankle-high boots?” The answer, of course, is a resounding ‘no’. (read review)

	Foinaven: The Story of the Grand National's Biggest Upset By David Owen Release date: 05th April, 2013 Publisher: Wisden List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £14.43 You Save: £4.56 (24%) Buy Now
We have a copy of Foinaven: The Story of the Grand National's Biggest Upset to give away. To win this week's very topical sports book, simply answer the following question: Which horse won the 2012 Grand National? (read review)

The Wizard: The Life of Stanley Matthews By Jon Henderson Release date: 02nd May, 2013 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £12.72 You Save: £6.27 (33%) Buy Now

Two recent publications highlight the stark difference between football as it used to be played and how it is today. Indeed, the game’s gradual decline over the period book-ended by each tome is a reflection of how society too has become more brutal and egocentric. In the blue corner is I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a self-centred, narcissistic account of the Swedish footballer’s career – part of which, incredibly, is written in the third person – in which he revels in telling readers how amazing he was in such-and-such a match. Contrast this with Jon Henderson’s The Wizard: The Life of Stanley Matthews, a marvellous biography which, while not avoiding several controversial episodes in Sir Stan’s life, also relishes his mazy runs, tenacity and humility, so evident in a career spanning 33 years. Perhaps someone should buy Ibrahimovic a copy for his no doubt XXXL-sized Christmas stocking (read review)

Domestique: The Real Life Ups and Downs of a Tour Pro By Charley Wegelius Release date: 07th June, 2013 Publisher: Ebury Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £9.78 You Save: £7.21 (42%) Buy Now

Our first Christmas giveaway is Charley Wegelius’s outstanding memoir. Wegelius was never a household name; instead, he was one of those crucial cycling team members without whom the superstars are unable to perform to their maximum ability. Domestique: The Real Life Ups and Downs of a Tour Pro is a wonderful account of life as a cycling foot soldier. To win a copy of DOMESTIQUE, simply answer the following question: In which country does the 2014 Tour de France commence? Send your answer to comps@sportsbookofthemonth.com no later than 15 December 2013. Good luck! (read review)

	The Good Son The Life & Times of Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini By Mark Kriegel Release date: 05th August, 2013 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £10.51 Our Price: £10.51 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now
First published in the USA to widespread critical acclaim last year, The Good Son, now available in the UK, is as fine a sporting biography as you will ever read. (read review)

	The Nowhere Men By Michael Calvin Release date: 28th August, 2013 Publisher: Century List Price: £14.49 Our Price: £10.34 You Save: £4.15 (28%) Buy Now
Nowhere Men is a captivating, marvellously well-written book. We should be thankful no-one stole Michael Calvin’s idea to highlight this forgotten area of the beautiful game. (read review)

Fear and Loathing in La Liga : Barcelona v Real Madrid By Sid Lowe Release date: 26th September, 2013 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £12.72 You Save: £6.27 (33%) Buy Now

We’ve reached a time of the year when publishers’ offices turn into frenetic places as firms become desperate to ensure their books are prominent during the industry’s busiest sales period. More sports books are sold in December than any other month, so over the next two weeks, we’ve selected what we believe to be the year’s best of breed. Football books do not feature quite as prominently as in earlier years, but perhaps the best is Sid Lowe’s Fear and Loathing in La Liga, a truly outstanding account of an intense football rivalry which exists between Barcelona and Real Madrid. (read review)

	Sir Alex Ferguson: My autobiography By Sir Alex Ferguson Release date: 20th October, 2013 Publisher: Hodder & Staughton List Price: £25.00 Our Price: £12.00 You Save: £13 (52%) Buy Now
To say he changed the face of English football in more than two decades at Old Trafford is an understatement of colossal proportions. Had he not been hired by Manchester United, it’s likely the club would have continued what appeared to be an inevitable decline and would probably be playing in the Championship today. (read review)

	Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda’s Cycling Team By Tim Lewis Release date: 01st October, 2013 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £10.99 You Save: £6 (35%) Buy Now
This meticulously researched work merits a wider audience than the biking fraternity – it certainly deserves one. (read review)

Undisputed Truth: My Autobiography By Mike Tyson Release date: 15th December, 2013 Publisher: Harper Sport List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £9.00 You Save: £11 (55%) Buy Now

Mike Tyson was recently denied entry to the UK, so instead of being able to see the former world champ in person talking about his new book as was originally intended, sports fans will have to make do with one of the most intriguing sporting memoirs ever written. Thankfully, as was the case when he was in the ring, Tyson pulls no punches in this beast of a book – at 560-odd pages, it’s twice the length of the standard sporting biography. (read review)

	At the Close of Play By Ricky Ponting Release date: 07th December, 2013 Publisher: HarperSport List Price: £25.00 Our Price: £18.80 You Save: £6.2 (24%) Buy Now
Cricket supporters, together with those who simply enjoy reading about a sporting phenomenon, should lump a copy of this enormous book to their favourite armchair and settle in for a lengthy treat. (read review)

	The Life and Times of Herbert Chapman by Patrick Barclay Release date: 12th January, 2014 Publisher: W&N List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £13.40 You Save: £6.6 (32%) Buy Now
Author Patrick Barclay paints vivid pictures of society and sport from a bygone era in this wonderful, thoroughly researched work, which demands a place on the bookshelves of discerning football lovers. (read review)

	Knocking Down Walls By Uwe Rosler Release date: 15th December, 2013 Publisher: Trinity Mirror Sport List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.55 You Save: £5.44 (32%) Buy Now
A cult hero in the blue half of Manchester, where T-shirts light-heartedly proclaimed: “Rosler’s grandad bombed Old Trafford”, (read review)

	Ping-Pong Diplomacy Ivor Montagu and the Astonishing Story Behind the Game that Changed the World By Nicholas Griffin Release date: 14th January, 2014 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £13.40 You Save: £6.6 (32%) Buy Now
Several compelling threads run through this outstanding work, not least the story of how table tennis led directly to a remarkably speedy melting of the icy relationship that had once engulfed China and the USA. (read review)

	The Lost World of Football By Derek Hammond & Gary Silke Release date: 03rd January, 2014 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £19.99 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now
The authors of 'Got, Not Got'have built on their success and produced The Lost World of Football, a rare opportunity for greying supporters to remind themselves of why our national sport was once called ‘the beautiful game’. (read review)

	Cycle of Lies The Fall of Lance Armstrong By Juliet Macur Release date: 17th March, 2014 Publisher: Williams Collins List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.55 You Save: £5.44 (32%) Buy Now
Macur’s book is certainly comprehensive, the product of ten years’ worth of notes and interviews with all the major players (including the main protagonist himself) involved in Armstrong’s extraordinary success and his protracted fall from grace. (read review)

	Pirates Punks & Politics By Nick Davidson Release date: 17th March, 2014 Publisher: Sports Books Ltd List Price: £8.99 Our Price: £7.95 You Save: £1.04 (11%) Buy Now
Pirates Punks & Politics is one of the five books you can win in our great Christmas sports book giveaway. For details of how to enter, scroll down to 'Competition' below. (read review)

	Gironimo Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy By Tim Moore Release date: 30th April, 2014 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £14.99 Our Price: £10.34 You Save: £4.65 (31%) Buy Now
Gironimo is a serious contender for sports book of the year. It’s also Radio Four’s ‘book of the week’ (12-16 May). (read review)

	Living on the Deadline By Frank Malley Release date: 13th May, 2014 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £8.96 You Save: £4.03 (31%) Buy Now
Ayone aspiring to enter a world where contact with sporting dreams and tears is the norm should read Frank Malley’s outstanding Living on the Deadline. (read review)

	Shocking Brazil By Fernando Duarte Release date: 05th June, 2014 Publisher: Arena Sport List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £8.96 You Save: £4.03 (31%) Buy Now
How a sports team or individual reacts to defeat, particularly an unexpected reverse, often tells us much about the loser’s mental strength. (read review)

	Twelve Yards by Ben Lyttleton Release date: 05th June, 2014 Publisher: Bantam Press List Price: £14.99 Our Price: £10.49 You Save: £4.5 (30%) Buy Now
Even strong, mentally tough characters miss penalties – though not if they’re German – and Lyttleton’s timely psychological references complements a well-paced narrative that avoids descending into psychobabble. (read review)

The Hate Game By Ben Dirs Release date: 14th July, 2014 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £8.99 Our Price: £6.95 You Save: £2.04 (22%) Buy Now

Published in hardback last year, The Hate Game has been released in paperback to a hopefully much wider audience. Mike Costello’s short foreword provides a sumptuous taster, telling readers that Dirs has brought together “all the duckers and divers and dreamers and schemers whose input, from the centre to the periphery, created and then exaggerated the antagonism that captivated a nation.” How could you not immerse yourself in Dirs’ wonderful narrative after that? (read review)

	A Clean Break: My Story - By Christophe Bassons Release date: 10th July, 2014 Publisher: Bloomsbury Sport List Price: £16.00 Our Price: £11.89 You Save: £4.11 (25%) Buy Now
GIVEN a level playing field, who knows how far Christophe Bassons might have travelled in the murky world of professional cycling. It was never level in his era but spiked almost as high as one of those gut-wrenching Tour de France ascents of the Alps or Pyrenees. (read review)

	Bobby Moore, the Man in Full By Matt Dickinson Release date: 12th September, 2014 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £20 Our Price: £9 You Save: £11 (55%) Buy Now
By identifying his faults, Dickinson makes Bobby Moore sound more human... (read review)

	Proud: My Autobiography By Gareth Thomas Release date: 20th September, 2014 Publisher: Ebury Press List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £10.00 You Save: £10 (50%) Buy Now
Rugby is a sport renowned for being well populated with dominant, hard-as-nails characters, leaders you would happily follow into battle. From Willie John McBride to Martin Johnson and a host of others in between, the sport’s tough physical nature propels such men to the fore, moulding them into modern-day sporting warriors. (read review)

	Bouts of Mania Ali, Frazier, Foreman and an America on the Ropes By Richard Hoffer Release date: 01st September, 2014 Publisher: Aurum Press List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £15.19 You Save: £4.81 (24%) Buy Now
Periods of radical, almost revolutionary, political, social and economic change have long been fertile backdrops for thousands of stories, but when the foreground is occupied by the greatest sportsman who ever lived, the combination, as Richard Hoffer proves, is electric. (read review)

	The Road to Nowhere A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands By Tris Dixon Release date: 20th October, 2014 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £16.99 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now
To win a copy of ROAD TO NOWHERE simply answer the following question: What year did Marvin Johnson compete at the Olympic Games? Send your answer to comps@sportsbookofthemonth.com no later than 28th November 2014. Good luck! (read review)

	Great British Cycling The History of British Bike Racing 1868-2014 By Ellis Bacon Release date: 29th September, 2014 Publisher: Bantam List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £16.00 You Save: £4 (20%) Buy Now
This is no dry statistical tome intent merely on arranging cycling’s many landmarks in strict chronological order. Instead, Bacon livens matters with first-hand accounts which oil the narrative as effectively as a heavy squirt of 3-in-1 onto a recalcitrant bike chain. (read review)

	Beyond the Horizon Extreme Adventures at the End of the World By Richard Parks Release date: 20th November, 2014 Publisher: Sphere Books List Price: £15.99 Our Price: £14.99 You Save: £1 (6%) Buy Now
“No sportsman knows how he will handle the end of his career…my time came suddenly and without argument.” The news hit former international rugby star Richard Parks like a sledgehammer and his description of coming to terms with the shock is as vivid and heart-rending as anything you will read. (read review)

	The Strangers Who Came Home The First Australian Cricket Tour of England By John Lazenby Release date: 27th January, 2015 Publisher: Wisden List Price: £25.00 Our Price: £15.90 You Save: £9.1 (36%) Buy Now
John Lazenby has written an outstanding sports book, inviting the reader into what became a voyage of sporting and cultural discovery. (read review)

	To Hell on a Bike Riding the Paris – Roubaix: The Toughest Race in Cycling By Iain MacGregor Release date: 16th March, 2015 Publisher: Bantam Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.89 You Save: £5.1 (30%) Buy Now
To Hell on a Bike is not pitched solely at the ‘Mamil’ (middle aged men in lycra) market. MacGregor’s is a genuinely inspirational story blending details of his preparation with the race’s history... (read review)

	The Ugly Game The Qatari Plot to Buy the World Cup By Heidi Blake & Jonathan Calvert Release date: 28th April, 2015 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £9.00 You Save: £7.99 (47%) Buy Now
As FIFA reels from accusations of corruption, bribery and racketeering, The Ugly Game explains just how the World Cup bidding process has made some FIFA officials very rich men... (read review)

	Bernard Hinault And the Fall and Rise of French Cycling By William Fotheringham Release date: 16th May, 2015 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.89 You Save: £5.1 (30%) Buy Now
William Fotheringham, author of two excellent cycling biographies, of Eddie Merckx and Tom Simpson, gives it both barrels in another superb account, this time of Bernard Hinault, the last Frenchman to win the Tour de France. Hinault won the race an incredible five times and is the only rider in history to win each of the Grand Tours more than once. (read review)

Half Time: The Glorious Summer of 1934 By Robert Winder Release date: 19th May, 2015 Publisher: Wisden Sports Publishing List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £15.90 You Save: £3.09 (16%) Buy Now

A couple of years ago, everyone’s favourite American import, Bill Bryson, wrote One Summer, the tale of how Babe Ruth, Al Capone and especially Charles Lindbergh dominated the news during the summer of 1927. Bryson successfully mixes newspaper reports with radio commentary and eye-witness accounts to immerse the reader into the age, allowing him to capture its spirit and understand how Lindbergh became the world’s most famous man. In Half Time, Robert Winder repeats the technique (read review)

	Field of Shadows: The English Cricket Tour of Nazi Germany 1937 By Dan Waddell Release date: 28th May, 2015 Publisher: Corgi List Price: £9.99 Our Price: £8.54 You Save: £1.45 (14%) Buy Now
Dan Waddell’s captivating, thoroughly entertaining and remarkably well-researched account of the 1937 tour to Germany by the Gentlemen of Worcester is now out in paperback. It would make a welcome addition to anyone’s sporting library. (read review)

Speed Kings: The Fastest Men in the World and the 1932 Winter Olympics By Andy Bull Release date: 07th June, 2015 Publisher: Bantam List Price: £17.99 Our Price: £14.99 You Save: £3 (16%) Buy Now

Yes, yes, we know 'Speed Kings' isn't a football book, although perhaps there's latent demand for a thumping study of pacy wingers. Who knows? No matter. Speed Kings is one of SIX of this year's best sports books and you can win them all for free, gratis, nowt, simply by entering our competition & submitting the correct answer. For further details, scroll down to the competition section below. (read review)

Max Mosley: Formula One and Beyond by Max Mosley Release date: 30th June, 2015 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £25.00 Our Price: £6.99 You Save: £18.01 (72%) Buy Now

Yes, yes, we know it's not a football book, but we're at least three weeks away from the start of the new footy season and we consider Max Mosley's book so good, we had to get it somewhere on the front page. We also have a signed copy of this book to give away. To win this prize, answer the following question: How many times has Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix? Send your answers to comps@sportsbookofthemonth.com before the closing date of 25th July 2015. (read review)

	The Test: My Life, and the Inside Story of the Greatest Ashes Series – by Simon Jones Release date: 02nd July, 2015 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £15.99 Our Price: £12.91 You Save: £3.08 (19%) Buy Now
Oh, the agony and the ecstasy. England quick Simon Jones experienced the full gamut of emotions in a career pockmarked by injuries yet illuminated by a stellar performance against the Aussies in 2005. (read review)

	Alpe D’Huez: Cycling’s Greatest Climb By Peter Cossins Release date: 14th June, 2015 Publisher: Aurum List Price: £17.99 Our Price: £11.89 You Save: £6.1 (33%) Buy Now
Having experienced race day ‘live’ as a fan of pro cycling, enormous breakfast barbeques, loud music and hundreds of people dressed in ridiculous costumes, it’s easier to appreciate Peter Cossins’ description of what Alpe D’Huez means to the thousands of Dutch folk (and other nationalities) who make their pilgrimage to this brutal climb whenever it forms part of the Tour de France. (read review)

A Man’s World By Donald McRae Release date: 10th September, 2015 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £16.59 You Save: £3.41 (17%) Buy Now

We have SIX OF THE BEST as our Christmas prize giveaway this week. That's right, the year's best sports books, including A Man's World, featured here, the two others above (Speed Kings & Cricket: The Game of Life) and three more: The Strangers Who Came Home; To Hell on a Bike and William Fotheringham's biography of French cycling ace, Bernard Hinault. Ok, how do you win this fabulous collection? Email us with the answer to the following question: Which nation won cricket’s inaugural World Cup? Send your answer to comps@sportsbookofthemonth.com no later than 18 December 2015 Good luck! By the way, you can read reviews of all six books on the site; go to our archive & make your choice. (read review)

Leading By Sir Alex Ferguson with Sir Michael Moritz Release date: 30th September, 2015 Publisher: Hodder & Staughton List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £12.00 You Save: £8 (40%) Buy Now

“Leadership is accepting responsibility for being a leader,” says Sir Alex Ferguson about his new book, Leading, co-authored by a man who knows a thing or two about business success, Sir Michael Moritz. It’s a fascinating read, not least because, rather controversially, the Scot maintains he only ever managed four truly world-class footballers: Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Eric Cantona. (read review)

	Eibar The Brave The Extraordinary Rise of La Liga’s Smallest Team By Euan McTear Release date: 01st September, 2015 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £9.99 Our Price: £7.99 You Save: £2 (20%) Buy Now
When tales of genuine footballing glory emerge, they provoke understandable interest because they offer fans an opportunity to remember what attracted them to the game in the first place. Euan McTear has written such a tale about Sociedad Deportiva Eibar, a football club that hails from a tiny Basque town around one third the size of Camp Nou. (read review)

	Cricket: The Game of Life By Scyld Berry Release date: 01st October, 2015 Publisher: Wisden Sports Publishing List Price: £25.00 Our Price: £18.00 You Save: £7 (28%) Buy Now
This is our sports book of the year. It's one of six you can win in our fantastic Christmas giveaway. See the competition section below for details. In the meantime, read our review to see why 'Cricket: The Game of Life' is our selection as the best sports book of 2015. (read review)

	Shankly’s Village By Adam Powley & Robert Gillan Release date: 01st December, 2015 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £18.25 You Save: £0.74 (3%) Buy Now
The name of Glenbuck, now a deserted, overgrown former mining village situated in south west Scotland, is one that resonates with football fans of a certain vintage. (read review)

	One Breath By Adam Skolnick Release date: 12th January, 2016 Publisher: Corsair List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £15.58 You Save: £4.42 (22%) Buy Now
Though the nearest most of us get to freediving is a spot of holiday snorkelling a few hundred yards off the coast, Adam Skolnick’s compelling story of this most extreme of extreme sports is likely to inspire bolder folks to dive a little deeper. (read review)

Man Vs Ocean By Adam Walker Release date: 07th January, 2016 Publisher: John Blake List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £9.00 You Save: £9.99 (52%) Buy Now

People scrambling for inspiration to walk, swim or run more should read Man Vs Ocean, an uplifting account of a man who was already fit and an accomplished swimmer and who, after he suffered a potentially debilitating injury, invented a new swimming stroke which enabled him to successfully tackle the Ocean’s Seven Challenge, swimming’s equivalent of mountaineering’s Seven Summits Challenge. Only six people have ever completed the Ocean’s Seven. (read review)

	From Light to Dark By Dave Heeley & Sophie Parkes Release date: 01st March, 2016 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £14.88 You Save: £2.11 (12%) Buy Now
When set in a sporting context, ‘inspirational’ has become an over-used adjective, an easy, if lazy description, used most frequently as a substitute for ‘impressive’ or ‘brilliant’; ‘inspirational’ is several notches higher up the ethereal, core-of-the-soul level than either of these two. (read review)

	Mister By Rory Smith Release date: 07th April, 2016 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £12.99 You Save: £6 (31%) Buy Now
Another of the half dozen books you can win in our brilliant Christmas competition. To enter, see the competition section below. (read review)

	Endurance The Extraordinary Life & Times of Emil Zatopek By Rick Broadbent Release date: 16th April, 2016 Publisher: Bloomsbury List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £14.99 You Save: £2 (11%) Buy Now
There was a time when those wishing to delve into the sporting past were almost exclusively reliant upon catching a timely television documentary or, shock, horror, reading about it. (read review)

	Forever Young By Oliver Kay Release date: 19th May, 2016 Publisher: Quercus List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £13.60 You Save: £6.4 (32%) Buy Now
A disappointingly large number of promising teenage boys fail to break through into first team football at every club in the land, but according to Giggs himself and an impressive list of others who know something about football, including Sir Alex Ferguson and Gary Neville, Adrian Doherty was something very special indeed. (read review)

	The Hitler Trophy Golf and the Olympic Games By Alan Fraser Release date: 16th May, 2016 Publisher: Floodlit Dreams List Price: £9.99 Our Price: £9.99 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now
Thanks to Alan Fraser’s meticulously-researched book, sports fans, as well as anyone else who enjoys a wonderful tale (mooted to have piqued Hollywood’s interest), can read how two British golfers ensured that Hitler’s attempt to extract maximum propaganda from a golf tournament backfired. (read review)

	For the Glory The Life of Eric Liddell from Olympic Champion to Modern Martyr By Duncan Hamilton Release date: 13th May, 2016 Publisher: Doubleday List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £13.99 You Save: £6 (30%) Buy Now
Duncan Hamilton has twice won the sports book of the year award and it would be no surprise if For the Glory, his compelling biography of Eric Liddell, ensured he completed a unique hat-trick later this year. (read review)

	We Had Some Laughs: My dad, the darts and me By Dan Waddell Release date: 20th May, 2016 Publisher: Bantam List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.89 You Save: £5.1 (30%) Buy Now
We have a copy of WE HAD SOME LAUGHS to give away. To win this prize, simply answer the following question: Who is the reigning men’s darts world champion? Send your answer to comps@sportsbookofthemonth.com no later than 8 June 2016 (read review)

And the Sun Shines Now: How Hillsborough and the Premier League Changed Britain By Adrian Tempany Release date: 02nd June, 2016 Publisher: Faber & Faber List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £10.49 You Save: £2.5 (19%) Buy Now

There have been a surprisingly large number of books written about Hillsborough and the preventable disaster that resulted in 96 Liverpool supporters losing their lives in April 1989, but few are as gut-wrenchingly well-written as And the Sun Shines Now. The book opens with a compelling eye-witness account of the author’s brush with death at Hillsborough, a dramatic start-point to what could be described as a modern social history, with football at its core. Post-Hillsborough, money flooded into the game as people you wouldn’t trust as far as you could throw them were allowed to acquire our most iconic football clubs, in contrast to the situation in Germany, where, as Tempany shows, fan ownership is more prevalent and matches significantly less expensive to attend. (read review)

	Fifty Years of Hurt: The Story of England Football and Why We Never Stop Believing By Henry Winter Release date: 07th June, 2016 Publisher: Bantam List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £9.99 You Save: £7 (41%) Buy Now
Twenty years ago, comedy duo Baddiel and Skinner employed a catchy tune with singalong lyrics to remind success-starved England fans that it had been three decades since the national team lifted any silverware of note. (read review)

	1966: My World Cup Story By Sir Bobby Charlton Release date: 13th June, 2016 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £10.00 You Save: £10 (50%) Buy Now
A brilliantly-written tribute to leadership - that of Sir Alf Ramsey - and the often ruthless manner with which he applied his vision to English football. Oh for some of Sir Alf's (and Sir Bobby's) magic... (read review)

	The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympics By Daniel James Brown Release date: 25th July, 2016 Publisher: Penguin Books List Price: £9.99 Our Price: £7.62 You Save: £2.37 (23%) Buy Now
At times, Brown’s work reads like a sporting supplement to Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, underpinned as it is with reminders of Depression America and an unwavering focus on those lower down the social scale... (read review)

	Angels With Dirty Faces The Footballing History of Argentina By Jonathan Wilson Release date: 14th August, 2016 Publisher: Orion List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £13.60 You Save: £6.4 (32%) Buy Now
“No country loves [football’s] theories and myths more than Argentina,” writes Jonathan Wilson in his comprehensive, but immensely readable and wonderfully-researched history of a nation and its long-term love for the beautiful game. (read review)

Shadow Box An Amateur in the Ring By George Plimpton Release date: 04th August, 2016 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £9.99 You Save: £3 (23%) Buy Now

Boxing is responsible for an even greater form of engagement with sports enthusiasts primarily because the calibre of the authors who write about this toughest of sporting disciplines tends to be of the highest level. Classics such as George Plimpton’s Shadow Box, published originally in the USA and now available in paperback here for the first time warrant inclusion on any sports fans’ bookcase. (read review)

AB The Autobiography By AB de Villiers Release date: 12th September, 2016 Publisher: Macmillan List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £12.91 You Save: £6.08 (32%) Buy Now

It’s reasonable to suggest that AB de Villiers is currently the world’s finest all-round batsman. He made his test debut for South Africa at the age of twenty and was selected for every single test his nation played over the subsequent eleven years, but he is renowned too as a ferocious T20 and ODI player. What is evident from this fine autobiography is that AB has stayed at the very top for such a long time because he takes nothing for granted. (read review)

	Lost in France By Spencer Vignes Release date: 01st August, 2016 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £8.99 Our Price: £8.99 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now
When picking sides at school, the boys chosen to keep goal were almost always amongst the last to be selected. They remained against the wall usually because their peers considered them less competent footballers, though this wasn’t always the case. (read review)

	Stroke of Genius Victor Trumper and the shot that changed the world By Gideon Haigh Release date: 22nd September, 2016 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £15.09 You Save: £3.9 (20%) Buy Now
Stroke of Genius is more than a history of a single photograph. Haigh manages to explore cricket’s evolution, opera, Impressionism, Australian politics and the Edwardian obsession with class without lecturing readers. (read review)

	His Own Man The Biography of Otto Peltzer By Tim Johnston and Donald Macgregor Release date: 01st September, 2016 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £17.99 Our Price: £15.58 You Save: £2.41 (13%) Buy Now
This highly recommended biography uncovers the amazing, little-known story of German athlete Otto Pelzer, who was brutalised by the Nazis for his forthright views and sexuality, but who survived to become an inspiration. (read review)

	Dare To Do: Taking on the Planet by Bike and Boat By Sarah Outen Release date: 04th November, 2016 Publisher: Nicholas Brealey List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £12.91 You Save: £4.08 (24%) Buy Now
Envy. More than a pang of it, too, is the overwhelming emotion most readers will feel even before they start Sarah Outen’s excellent tale of circumnavigating the globe under her own steam. (read review)

The Cyclist Who Went Out In The Cold By Tim Moore Release date: 01st November, 2016 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £10.49 You Save: £6.5 (38%) Buy Now

This is another of the best sports books of the year you can win in our Christmas 2016 competition. Two of the others are shown above; the other three are: WE HAD SOME LAUGHS; CYCLING THE EARTH & FOREVER YOUNG. To win all six books, simply answer the following question: How many gold medals did Team GB win at this year's Rio Olympics? Send your answer to comps@sportsbookofthemonth.com no later than 12th December 2016 (read review)

	Tiger Woods By Jeff Benedict & Armen Keteyian Release date: 27th March, 2018 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £13.60 You Save: £5.39 (28%) Buy Now
There are plenty of biographies that focus on Tiger Woods’ extraordinary life, but the well-researched and often revealing details presented by Messrs Benedict and Keteyian make this bumper offering (it runs to more than 500 pages) a cut above the rest. When it was released in the States, the New York Times called it a ‘perfectly pitched biography’; it’s difficult to disagree. (read review)

	Epic Bike Rides of the World Release date: 03rd January, 2017 Publisher: Lonely Planet List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £19.99 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now
There are plenty of good books in which authors tell of how they rode this or that Grand Tour route (read anything by Tim Moore), or careered across continents, but time (and money) considerations ensure that most folks will never have the chance to follow in their footsteps. Which is where Lonely Planet’s Epic Bike Rides of the World comes in. (read review)

Redemption: From Iron Bars to Ironman By John McAvoy with Mark Turley Release date: 06th January, 2017 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.89 You Save: £5.1 (30%) Buy Now

'Redemption' is our sports book of the year 2017. Discover our top five by clicking on 'read review' below. WE'RE ALSO OFFERING this year’s TOP TEN sports books as the ultimate Christmas giveaway. To win this fantastic prize, simply answer the following question: Which country will host the 2020 Olympic Games? Send your answer to comps@sportsbookofthemonth.com no later than 20th December 2017 (read review)

	Four Mums in a Boat: By Jeanette Benaddi, Helen Butters, Nikki Doeg & Frances Davies Release date: 16th March, 2017 Publisher: HQ List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.89 You Save: £5.1 (30%) Buy Now
The story of four women in their forties and fifties, who went from meeting at their local rowing club each Saturday morning in order to get some exercise while enjoying a laugh and a gossip, to rowing the Atlantic in record time offers a compelling form of sporting inspiration. (read review)

	The Talent Lab The secrets of creating and sustaining success By Owen Slot Release date: 27th April, 2017 Publisher: Ebury Press List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £14.88 You Save: £5.12 (25%) Buy Now
The turnaround in Great Britain’s Olympic fortunes since Atlanta in 1996 has been nothing short of dramatic. From a miserable return on investment 21 years ago, in 2012, Team GB were third in the medal table; at last year’s Rio Olympics, they took second place. Yet, as Slot shows, it wasn’t as though sport was starved of cash between 1996-2012. (read review)

Quiet Genius: Bob Paisley, British Football’s Greatest Manager By Ian Herbert Release date: 04th May, 2017 Publisher: Bloomsbury Sport List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £16.99 You Save: £3 (15%) Buy Now

No British football manager has lifted three European Cups, yet it’s fair to say that Bob Paisley, who did so at Liverpool, has never received the praise he deserved. He never complained, but just got on with his job, nurturing and recruiting outstanding footballers, almost all of whom were leaders and ensuring they played simple football. “Play the way you’re facing,” was a standard Paisley refrain, an effective tactic that often produced scintillating football and remarkable success. (read review)

	The Captain Class: The Hidden Force Behind the World’s Greatest Teams By Sam Walker Release date: 18th May, 2017 Publisher: Ebury Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £13.60 You Save: £3.39 (19%) Buy Now
In an age when the captain’s armband is sometimes lobbed across to a player unlikely ever to be deemed a natural commander, there are several instances of sporting leadership. (read review)

The Greatest Comeback: From Genocide to Football Glory By David Bolchover Release date: 01st June, 2017 Publisher: Biteback List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £13.60 You Save: £5.39 (28%) Buy Now

Béla Guttmann could justifiably be called football’s first ‘super coach’, a man acutely aware of his own worth, but the tactical abilities which saw him employed by more than twenty clubs during a career that stretched well into his sixties, was only part of his incredible story. His willingness to travel in order to further his football career earned him the nickname “Wandering Jew” (too rarely used in jest), yet his Jewishness is integral to this remarkable and well-researched tale. (read review)

The Descent By Thomas Dekker Release date: 07th July, 2017 Publisher: Ebury Press List Price: £9.99 Our Price: £9.09 You Save: £0.9 (9%) Buy Now

The Descent is a sports book with a difference. It’s not often that prior to its official launch, an author says he doesn’t care whether his book sells a single copy (his publishers may feel otherwise), but former professional cyclist Thomas Dekker clearly isn’t particularly fussed: “I just felt that I needed to write this story down,” he told one interviewer by way of cathartic justification. (read review)

	The Fall of the House of FIFA By David Conn Release date: 07th July, 2017 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £13.99 You Save: £3 (17%) Buy Now
Voted number two in our list of 2017's sports books. You can discover our top ten (numbers 1-5 are above, in the 'Redemption' review section), while numbers 6 -10 are below, followed by our review of the Fall of the House of FIFA. Click on "read review". You can win all ten books for Christmas! See our quiz question above. (read review)

	The Billionaires Club: The Unstoppable Rise of Football’s Super-Rich Owners By James Montague Release date: 24th August, 2017 Publisher: Bloomsbury Sport List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £13.99 You Save: £3 (17%) Buy Now
There was a time when football clubs were owned by a local businessman, usually one who had made his money by building and developing a nearby enterprise which generally employed large numbers of local people. (read review)

	Crazy: My Road to Redemption By Chris Lewis Release date: 01st September, 2017 Publisher: The History Press List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £16.00 You Save: £2.99 (15%) Buy Now
Crazy is a world away from what might be called the ‘standard’ sporting biography, a fascinating mixture of heady success, a remarkable fall from grace and, hopefully for Chris Lewis, redemption. (read review)

	Ali: A Life By Jonathan Eig Release date: 04th October, 2017 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £25.00 Our Price: £16.79 You Save: £8.21 (32%) Buy Now
You could fill a library with Muhammed Ali biographies, photographic collections, tittle-tattle, statistical tomes and hastily-prepared cut-and-paste ‘appreciations’, which may prompt the would-be reader of Ali: A Life to ask, ‘is it worth spending £16.79 on yet another book which focuses on the great man’s life? (read review)

	A Clear Blue Sky By Jonny Bairstow with Duncan Hamilton Release date: 01st November, 2017 Publisher: Harper Collins List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £14.44 You Save: £5.55 (27%) Buy Now
If you’re looking to read one of the very best sport-related books of recent years, then treat yourself to a copy of A Clear Blue Sky. (read review)

	Ascent By Sir Chris Bonnington Release date: 01st November, 2017 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £13.77 You Save: £5.22 (27%) Buy Now
It comes as no surprise to learn that three years ago, at the age of 80, Sir Chris Bonnington conquered The Old Man of Hoy, a 449-foot sandstone sea stack off the island of Hoy in the Orkneys. He first climbed the stack with two others in 1966 and would do so again the following year for a live, 3-night BBC broadcast which attracted more than 15 million viewers. (read review)

The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics By Michael Cox Release date: 11th January, 2018 Publisher: Harper Collins List Price: £9.99 Our Price: £6.29 You Save: £3.7 (37%) Buy Now

Avoiding the need for a lengthy preamble, Michael Cox gets straight to his most important argument in the opening lines of The Mixer, noting that, “The introduction of the back-pass law in 1992 had a transformative effect upon football. Not since 1925, when the offside law was altered…had a law change been so effective in improving the spectacle of the world’s most popular sport.” In a rare example of sporting and commercial serendipity, the new rule was introduced at precisely the same time as Sky were desperately keen to repackage football (remember the cheerleaders and other pre-match razzmatazz?) and sell it to subscribers. Yet this simple rule change made the game faster because goalkeepers could no longer pick the ball up from a back-pass. “Sky were hugely fortunate,” notes Cox. “Without this significant improvement…the Premier League wouldn’t have developed into the multi-billion pound product it is today.” (read review)

	Unbreakable By Jelena Dokic with Jess Halloran Release date: 05th January, 2018 Publisher: Ebury Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £16.99 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now
Unbreakable is, in many respects, a harrowing story, although it’s one which, regrettably, we’re increasingly familiar. (read review)

	In The Zone How Champions Think and Win Big By Martin Brolin Release date: 11th January, 2018 Publisher: Blink Publishing List Price: £9.99 Our Price: £6.19 You Save: £3.8 (38%) Buy Now
Brolin has performed at his chosen sport’s highest level and understands what it’s like to enjoy periods when, shorn of distractions, a sportsman or woman can move, almost seamlessly, onto a higher plane and perform feats which, to the outsider, appear super-human. (read review)

	The Boy on the Shed By Paul Ferris Release date: 23rd February, 2018 Publisher: Hodder & Staughton List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £13.60 You Save: £3.39 (19%) Buy Now
An early contender for sports book of the year, The Boy on the Shed is not only a great story of a man who came tantalisingly close to making it as a top-flight footballer (and went on to achieve so much else besides), but is simultaneously engaging, well-paced and, like the very best stories, well written. (read review)

	401: The Extraordinary Story of the Man Who Ran 401 Marathons in 401 Days and Changed His Life Forever By Ben Smith Release date: 10th April, 2018 Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing List Price: £11.00 Our Price: £9.35 You Save: £1.65 (15%) Buy Now
Sport occasionally becomes the vehicle for supporting, rather than causing a significant change. This is the message that leaps loud and clear from 401, Ben Smith’s extraordinary tale of how he formulated and then completed an outrageous sporting challenge. (read review)

One Goal A Coach, A Team and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together By Amy Bass Release date: 09th March, 2018 Publisher: Hachette Books List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £16.99 You Save: £2 (10%) Buy Now

We’ve grown so used to images of refugees on the evening news that we’re increasingly immune to their plight. Yet refugees who, having escaped the wretchedness of their homes are often viewed with suspicion or barely-concealed dislike, usually because of their colour, religion, or even manner of dress. One Goal is a book about hope: be it sporting, religious, cultural or political. Read it, because it might make you look at those television images of refugees a little differently. (read review)

	Iron Ambition Lessons I’ve Learned from the Man Who made Me a Champion By Mike Tyson with Larry Sloman Release date: 01st June, 2018 Publisher: Sphere List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £15.99 You Save: £3 (15%) Buy Now
Reviewing Undisputed Truth (Mike Tyson’s autobiography) when it was first published, we called it “an A-list sporting tome”, a description Iron Ambition also commands. The current title has the added benefit of authenticity, for ghost writer Larry Sloman has successfully captured Tyson’s spoken delivery, punctuated as it is with a machine-gun-like attack of expletives. (read review)

	Fifty Cup Finals My Life in Football By Nick Collins Release date: 16th May, 2018 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £13.36 You Save: £6.63 (33%) Buy Now
Thankfully, this is not a book comprising a rather subjective list of the 50 best finals that Nick Collins has witnessed over the past 40 years. Instead, it’s a pacey, well-informed, behind-the-scenes journey which every budding sports reporter should read. (read review)

The Range Bucket List: The Golf Adventure of a Lifetime By James Dodson Release date: 19th May, 2018 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £15.99 Our Price: £12.62 You Save: £3.37 (21%) Buy Now

Harbouring sporting ambitions when you’re a 13-year-old boy or girl is entirely natural; making a note of them in writing equally normal. Folding this list and putting it away before forgetting about your once vitally important sporting objectives altogether is just as common. Such is the background to James Dodson’s wonderfully engaging book, The Range Bucket List, part memoir, part sporting observation, part travelogue and perhaps most importantly, partly a desire to satisfy, wherever possible, those ambitions he noted fifty years earlier. (read review)

	No Helmets Required The remarkable story of the American All Stars By Gavin Willacy Release date: 10th June, 2018 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £12.99 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now
We’re running our famous competitions to win one of all three featured books and you have until 17 July to enter: To win a copy of No Helmets Required, answer the following question: Which country won the most recent Rugby League World Cup? Email your answer to comps@sportsbookofthemonth.com no later than 17 July 2018 (read review)

	The Jersey: The Secrets Behind the World’s Most Successful Team By Peter Bills Release date: 11th August, 2018 Publisher: Macmillan List Price: £17.99 Our Price: £15.00 You Save: £2.99 (16%) Buy Now
To win a copy of The Jersey, answer the following question: What is the name of the traditional Maori challenge thrown down by the All Blacks before the start of a Test match? Email your answer to comps@sportsbookofthemonth.com no later than 21st August 2018 (read review)

	England: The Biography The Story of English Cricket 1877-2018 By Simon Wilde Release date: 25th July, 2018 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £25.00 Our Price: £16.94 You Save: £8.06 (32%) Buy Now
The world’s first organised team sport has attracted thousands of authors to its ample bosom, each unearthing a niche about which to write: be it the game’s nuances, rules, strategies, politics or controversies. Wilde successfully covers many similar strands, supplementing them with a mountain of statistics… (read review)

Game Changers How a team of underdogs & scientists discovered what it takes to win By Joao Medeiros Release date: 30th August, 2018 Publisher: Little, Brown List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £18.99 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now

They first appeared on television a few seasons ago – a tiny, on-screen graphic detailing how far a footballer had run during a match before being substituted, but the data was originally assembled by a small team of sports scientists working for Everton in the early 1970s. They discovered that, on average, players covered a distance of 8,680 metres every game, a quarter of which was walked. (read review)

	A Boy in the Water By Tom Gregory Release date: 01st September, 2018 Publisher: Particular Books List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £10.49 You Save: £8.5 (44%) Buy Now
Tom Gregory recalls the unadulterated joy of piling into a ropey minibus with his south London pals as they headed off on swimming weekends on the south coast or in the Lake District, laughing and joking as they prepared to experience the joys of sleeping under canvas and eating cheap, stodgy food prior to embarking on prolonged cold water training… (read review)

	The Beautiful Badge The Stories Behind the Football Club Badge By Martyn Routledge & Elspeth Wills Release date: 01st September, 2018 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £25.00 Our Price: £19.49 You Save: £5.51 (22%) Buy Now
One of the most enjoyable aspects of reviewing sports books is the opportunity it affords to read such a variety of material and to occasionally happen upon an absolutely compelling title and wonder ‘why hasn’t this been done before?’. (read review)

	The Little Big Things The Inspirational Memoir of the Year By Henry Fraser Release date: 16th September, 2018 Publisher: Seven Dials List Price: £9.99 Our Price: £6.47 You Save: £3.52 (35%) Buy Now
To win a copy of The Little Big Things, correctly answer the following question: Which country is hosting next year’s Rugby World Cup? Email your answer to comps@sportsbookofthemonth.com no later than 2nd October 2018 (read review)

	No Spin My Autobiography By Shane Warne with Mark Nicholas Release date: 15th October, 2018 Publisher: Ebury Press List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £13.00 You Save: £7 (35%) Buy Now
The glut of books focusing on Shane Warne’s career is testimony to his ability. He made his Test debut after just seven first-class appearances and went on to take more than 1,000 Test and ODI wickets and score more than 3,000 Test match runs. (read review)

	The Club How the Premier League Became the Richest, Most Disruptive Business in Sport By Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg Release date: 10th January, 2019 Publisher: John Murray List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £14.00 You Save: £6 (30%) Buy Now
Football fans? They’re just the folks who keep the whole shebang running: attending games, buying satellite television subscriptions, club merchandise and replica kits. Should they buy The Club, it would confirm the degree to which they’ve been taken for a ride. (read review)

	Sketches From Memory A Rugby Memoir By Stuart Barnes Release date: 17th February, 2019 Publisher: Arena Publishing List Price: £14.99 Our Price: £11.76 You Save: £3.23 (21%) Buy Now
It helps that Stuart Barnes is a terrific writer, one capable of echoing perfectly in print that laid-back, intelligent, let’s-have-a-beer-and-discuss-it character we hear so clearly when listening to him commentate on international rugby matches. (read review)

Unbreakable: The Woman Who Defied the Nazis in the World’s Most Dangerous Horse Race By Richard Askwith Release date: 30th March, 2019 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £12.99 You Save: £4 (23%) Buy Now

By the late 1930s, Czechoslovakia prepared for German invasion as Hitler’s dreams for the Third Reich appeared increasingly plausible. By October 1937, many Czechs, assuming the worst, turned their attention instead to the Grand Pardubice steeplechase, a highlight of the national sporting calendar. Even this most demanding of races had been dominated Germans and Austrians; the home crowd’s only hope was that 1937’s Teutonic contingent would fail to finish. (read review)

Monsieur X: The incredible story of the most audacious gambler in history By Janie Reid Release date: 23rd March, 2019 Publisher: Bloomsbury Sport List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £12.81 You Save: £4.18 (24%) Buy Now

The backdrop to this thrilling, fast-moving tale reads like the introduction to a Gallic version of a Bond novel. It’s to author Jamie Reid’s credit that readers could believe Ian Fleming was at the typewriter as we’re introduced to the book’s Monsieur X, Patrice des Moutis. Reid successfully invokes Paris of the 1950s, isolated pockets of which became a glamorous, fashionable, Gauloise-smoking counterpoint to much of Europe, still on its knees following six years of war. (read review)

	Edmund Hillary - A Biography The extraordinary life of the beekeeper who climbed Everest Release date: 12th March, 2019 Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing List Price: £24.00 Our Price: £15.84 You Save: £8.16 (34%) Buy Now
June 2019 marks the centenary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s birth in New Zealand. While his life story is already well known to millions of people, Michael Gill’s comprehensive biography will hopefully introduce a younger audience to an individual whose life-defining feat made him one of the world’s most famous men. (read review)

The Rise of the Ultra Runners By Adharanand Finn Release date: 16th May, 2019 Publisher: Faber List Price: £11.99 Our Price: £10.49 You Save: £1.5 (12%) Buy Now

For far too many people nowadays, ‘ultra-running’ constitutes no more than a dash for the bus, but as Adharanand Finn discovers in The Rise of the Ultra Runners, you’re likely to happen upon the sport’s single-minded cohort practicing somewhere in the Arabian desert or atop a snow-capped mountain range rather than on the high street. Finn sets himself an ultra-running target: to complete the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), a 105-mile race around Mont Blanc, the route of which ascends 34,000ft (10,300m) and passes through three different countries. (read review)

	In Sunshine or in Shadow By Donald McRae Release date: 30th May, 2019 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £14.99 You Save: £4 (21%) Buy Now
We have a copy of In Sunshine or in Shadow to give away. To win this prize, correctly answer the following question: At which weight did Barry McGuigan become world champion ? Send your answers to: comps@sportsbookofthemonth.com before 4 June 2019. Good luck! (read review)

	Tiger Woods By Jeff Benedict & Armen Keteyian Release date: 27th April, 2019 Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: £10.99 Our Price: £7.69 You Save: £3.3 (30%) Buy Now
Most sporting biographies are published in paperback to ‘mop-up’ an audience who tend not to buy expensive hardback versions; for less than eight quid, Tiger Woods in paperback is a snip. (read review)

The Next Big Thing By Ryan Baldi Release date: 10th May, 2019 Publisher: Pitch Publishing List Price: £9.99 Our Price: £8.85 You Save: £1.14 (11%) Buy Now

In his captivating first book, The Next Big Thing, Ryan Baldi examines the roles played by injury, luck, poor attitude, physical development, fate and a host of other factors which prevented fifteen youngsters from reaching football’s highest echelons despite being on the books at some of the world’s biggest clubs, after (usually) representing their respective countries at various age levels. (read review)

	Football Hackers The Science and Art of a Data Revolution By Christoph Biermann Release date: 08th June, 2019 Publisher: Blink Publishing List Price: £10.99 Our Price: £9.52 You Save: £1.47 (13%) Buy Now
Rarely does a discussion regarding the competence of on-screen football ‘analysts’ conclude that the nonsense fans must listen to in between, or during games, is absolute tosh. (read review)

Training Secrets of the World's Greatest Footballers: How Science is Transforming the Modern Game By James Witts Release date: 01st July, 2019 Publisher: Bloomsbury List Price: £15.99 Our Price: £11.80 You Save: £4.19 (26%) Buy Now

Witts gets into his stride when summarising football’s scientific revolution. “Today’s clubs have experts to help players run faster, recover faster and heal faster, “ he says. “Players are trained for their specific positions within a team based on analysis by sports scientists, who tell the coach how many sprints that role demands, over what distance and at what rate of acceleration. This data-led [analysis] is symptomatic of the age and is light years away from days gone by.” (read review)

Zonal Marking By Michael Cox Release date: 10th June, 2019 Publisher: Harper Collins List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.85 You Save: £5.14 (30%) Buy Now

Michael Cox has followed up his excellent book, The Mixer, which examined the development of English football’s tactics over the 25-year period following the formation of the Premier League, with an equally engrossing look at European football’s tactical development over roughly the same period in his new book, Zonal Marking. His impressive analysis of European methods suggests that a variety of nations have enjoyed tactical hegemony, albeit for comparatively short periods. (read review)

	The Judge by Robin Smith Release date: 16th June, 2019 Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £14.99 You Save: £4 (21%) Buy Now
Following England’s nerve-shredding victory over New Zealand last weekend, we should prepare for a tsunami of cricket titles likely to start hitting retailers’ bookshelves within the next few weeks (read review)

	The Autobiography By Alastair Cook With Michael Calvin Release date: 05th September, 2019 Publisher: Michael Joseph List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £13.57 You Save: £6.43 (32%) Buy Now
Following England at any mainstream sport requires great quantities of blind optimism and often unrealistic hope, coupled with a willingness to accept disappointment, especially when matters appear to be going well. (read review)

Money Can’t Buy Us Love: Everton in the 1960s By Gavin Buckland Release date: 13th August, 2019 Publisher: DeCoubertin Books List Price: £17.80 Our Price: £20.00 You Save: £-2.2 (-12%) Buy Now

Whenever a definitive social history of modern English football is written, the author will find the early 1960s a perfect start point. More specifically, he or she will spend time highlighting Everton’s pivotal role in creating a football business model that was eventually adopted by every ambitious club in the land. Everton were perhaps the first to accommodate a rich, powerful benefactor who used his wealth to reinvigorate an already big club, “taking English football into unchartered territory at the time,” according to Gavin Buckland in Money Can’t Buy Us Love. (read review)

The Boxer’s Story: Fighting for My Life in the Nazi Camps By Nathan Shapow with Bob Harris Release date: 16th August, 2019 Publisher: Biteback Publishing List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £16.99 You Save: £3.01 (15%) Buy Now

First published in hardback in 2013, Nathan Shapow’s The Box¬er’s Sto¬ry: Fight¬ing for My Life in the Nazi Camps, co-authored by sports¬writer Bob Har¬ris, is now available in paperback . The press release accompanying the book calls it “an extraordinary and powerful true story that reads like a thriller. It will deeply affect everyone who reads it.” Ordinarily, such releases can be ignored; not this one. (read review)

	Smokin’ Joe The Life of Joe Frazier By Mark Kram Jr Release date: 07th August, 2019 Publisher: Blackstone List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £15.99 You Save: £4.01 (20%) Buy Now
If it can be argued that the 1970s represented boxing’s golden age – and few would disagree – then it was the period’s greatest rivalry between Smokin’ Joe Frazier and Muhammed Ali which defined the sport . Despite this, Frazier received nowhere near sufficient acclaim for his status as the undisputed world heavyweight champion between 1970-73. (read review)

Guiding Me Home and Away By Dave Thomas Release date: 27th September, 2019 Publisher: Hornet Books List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £13.81 You Save: £3.18 (18%) Buy Now

Like so many others sporting memories, the permanent image of Dave Thomas flying down the wing is filed away in the mind’s deepest recesses. We always remember our sporting heroes as they were rather than what they become; the ageing process take no account of how many international caps they may have won. Nevertheless, we imagine that because they were so fit, so dedicated, sportsmen and women will remain sprightly well into old age. Unfortunately, this doesn’t necessarily follow. Doddie Weir and Stiliyan Petrov, for instance, are two who succumbed to diseases capable of affecting anyone of us; our sporting heroes are human after all. (read review)

The ‘Got Not Got’ Football Gift Book by Derek Hammond & Gary Silke Release date: 01st October, 2019 Publisher: Conker Editions List Price: £16.00 Our Price: £16.00 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now

Those of us who began attending our first matches in the 1960s and 70s will undoubtedly recall a much different game to the one which nowadays is never off our television (and other) screens. Fortunately, Derek Hammond and Gary Silke have compiled and written Got Not Got Football Gift Book, sub-titled ‘Every fan’s catalogue of desires’ for those of us who remember how things used to be back in the day. (read review)